Message from the President

Make Dreams Real

It is an honor to serve as president of the Rotary Club of Topeka for the 2008-09 Rotary year. Our international president, D. K. Lee has chosen “Make Dreams Real” as the theme for the upcoming year. He has asked that we look for ways to reduce childhood mortality through traditional Rotary programs aimed at alleviating hunger and poverty, as well as promoting health and literacy.

Indeed, Rotarians are helping to Make Dreams Real in our local communities and around the world. Our club is involved in a number of literacy programs, has helped with medical and dental clinics here in Topeka, as well as sponsoring cataract surgery in Pakistan, polio reconstructive surgery in India and we are currently working to put together a grant to help sponsor an ambulance in Bangladesh.

Of course, no organization has done more to make the dream of polio eradication a reality than Rotary. We are very close - -new polio cases have been reduced by 99% since Rotary launched Polio Plus in 1985. There are only four countries where polio is endemic, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. With the help of a $100,000,000 matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary International is ready to tackle the final obstacles of reaching the goal or complete eradication. You will hear more about what you can do to help with this project in the next few months.

Are there unmet needs in the Topeka community where Rotarians could be of service? If you have a good idea, please don’t hesitate to let me, or a board member know.
A special thanks to past board members Anita Wolgast and Mike Welch who recently completed their term in office, as well as Gordon Lansford who remains on the board as Vice President. Thanks are also in order to John Christiansen for many years of maintaining our website and sending out the weekly meeting reminders. Finally, I offer one last THANK-YOU to Joan Wagnon for her leadership this past year.

The coming year should be fun as we work together to make others’ dream become real!

Message from the President

Dear Fellow Rotarians:

At the board meeting earlier this week, we looked at a number of reports that showed our progress during this Rotary year. It's hard for me to be-lieve that my year as president is three-quarters finished, and our next president, Kirk Johnson is already making plans for his year which begins in July. But, we still have a quarter left in which to finish up some of our work. There are still service projects and social activities to plan before our June banquet which formally concludes the Rotary year.

We have done a good job both in raising money for the Foundation, and participating in projects funded by the Rotary International Foundation. Gordon Lansford, who chairs the club’s international service projects, re-ported to the club that Rohan Radhakrishna won one of the two Rotary Ambassadorial scholarships from our district. Our candidate made such an impression on the judges with his presentation that he won handily. His $23,000 scholarship will enable him to study in India for a year between his 3rd and 4th year of medical school, which will greatly broaden his knowledge. He will be a true ambassa-dor for Rotary. Rohan grew up in Topeka and graduated from Washburn Rural High School before attending Stanford University for his bachelor’s degree. He is currently attending the University of California Medical School in Berkley/San Francisco and will join us at a future club meeting. Ro-han’s letter to our club follows in this issue.

By the time you read this, our GSE team from South Korea will have come and gone. Thanks to Staci Williams, they were well cared-for during their visit. The purpose of Group Study Exchange teams is to promote international understanding and good will. Certainly, these visitors will have lasting memories of their Kansas visit and of our Rotarians that hosted them. The club thanks David and Lynette Beck, Webb and Julie Garlinghouse, Maggie and Dale Warren and George and Rita Webb for serving as host families.

Our membership is really fluid. We have brought in 17 new members, but have lost 21 due to death, moving from the city, changes in job duties, and a host of other reasons. The biggest challenge to Rotary clubs across the country is to maintain their membership. Won’t you ask a colleague if they would like to join Rotary? Invite them to a meeting (the club will buy the lunch) and then give them an application form. Rotary opens up a whole new avenue of opportunities for people, but we have to reach out to them first.

Won’t you help?

Joan Wagnon

Message from the President

Dear Fellow Rotarians:

For my message this month, I’d like to share excerpts from a letter to club Presidents from Rotary International President, Wilf Wilkinson. President Wilf has set increasing membership for Rotary International as one of his goals – a goal our club has embraced. Although we have some wonderful new members, we have not yet gained the “one net new member” required for a presidential citation this year.

Here are the results to date:
16 New Members since July 1, 2007 - Max Clayton, Sharad Doshi, Bucky Gaudreau, Johnny Huffman, Terry Iles, CindyLuxem, Todd Payne, Terry Sandlin, Maggie Warren, Jason Adair, Jose Davis, Jamie Dean, Travis Maurath, Elizabeth Page, Brady Robb, and Kathleen Williams

19 Resigned/Death since July 1, 2007— Pete Doll, Steve Durrell, Duane Fager, Dale Garrett, Dan Lassley, Mary Martell, John Martin, Frank McGrath, Don Rankin, Tony Sawyer, Debra Snow, Candace Stephenson, Bob Wheeler, Debbie White, Breta Bloomberg, Ros Cofran, Gary Dick, Claudia Larkin, John Pinegar
President Wilf states:
“Growing our membership is all of our responsibility (Member Recruit Member) and we must get that message across to our club colleagues. Through the first six months of this 2007-08 Rotary year (July through January, 2008) we have experienced a slight increase of 1,240 net new members.

“I challenged every Rotarian to bring in at least one new member. Have you met my challenge? Have you served your club or district by promoting membership growth whenever you can? We need your continued good efforts if we are to achieve our goal. Most clubs lose 5% to 10% of their members each year so we must replace those we lose and add new members to reach the membership growth Rotary needs to succeed. As a reminder, my Presidential Citation requires each club to gain one net new member by March 31, 2008. It would be a shame for the rest of the good work your club is doing to not be recognized because this membership goal was not met! Thank you for all you are doing to make Rotary the premier Service Organization in the World.”

Won’t you talk to your friends and colleagues about Rotary? Our policy allows you to bring a guest, and if that guest is a potential member, the club will pay for the luncheon fee. Membership applications are on the table in the back.

Help us Share Rotary!
Joan Wagnon

Message From the President

Dear Fellow Rotarians:

February and March are really busy times for me, because the legislature is in session and that places extra demands on my time. I know that all of you have busy schedules as well. Amazingly, people in our club still find time to work on Rotary and our many service projects in the community. We have a terrific group of officers and directors in this club. I'd like to highlight just a few who put in lots of effort to keep our club functioning, despite busy schedules and other demands on their time.

Terry Wages, Vice-President, is doing a great job planning our programs and handling speaker introductions. Terry makes countless phone calls and sends a ton of e-mail just to keep our Thursday meetings interesting. And he always has a smile, even when his speaker just cancelled and he has to find another! This is probably the busiest job in the entire club.

Gary Knoll, Treasurer, makes sure our money is accounted for, provides analysis of how our spending re-lates to the budget, and deals with the Ramada Inn on our weekly meals -- not an easy task! We have just ex-perienced another increase in our meal costs so Gary has to make sure we stay within our budget.

Mike Welch has moved the planning for our vocational service program with the area middle school stu-dents into high gear. Mike did a superb job last year organizing a day-long Saturday program for students which exposed them to a variety of occupations and careers. He and his volunteers plan to make this year's program even more spectacular. He will need help from all of us to make this successful this year. The date is March 14th. Won't you make plans to help with this important event?

Anita Wolgast, Club Service, and Joy Moser, Club Administration are constantly checking to see that things run smoothly--whether its having someone at the registration table, or greeters, or someone to give the invocation to coordinating the various service projects for the club. They each have a large group of volun-teers to manage and they do it beautifully.

Al Dvorak and Pat Michaelis have been hard at work finding new members. We are so pleased with the new members that have joined since our club year began in July. Unfortunately, we have lost members as well through death and resignation, so member recruitment requires a constant effort. The entire member-ship committee works very hard at bringing in these new members and seeing that they feel a part of our club. Hats off to Al and Pat and the entire committee.

Greg Hill deserves special thanks for all the time and effort he has put into making Rotopeka such an excel-lent publication. Greg has to pull and prod all of us to get stories, but he always puts out a quality newslet-ter. Do Greg and favor, and help him find copy for our newsletter; if you can‘t, just pat him on the back for his efforts.

Finally, I don‘t have space to mention everyone who is working for Rotary, but someone in our club is doing something every week – often unnoticed. You know who you are, and I hope you take great pride in giving Service Above Self, and making our Rotary family better and better. Thank you for what you do.

Joan Wagnon

Message from the President

Actually, we’re six months through the Rotary year which ends June 30. Part of my duties as club president are to make sure we are on track with our club goals which were set last Spring.

Our board members have been hard at work on priority projects and we have more to roll out this Spring.
We keep recruiting new members, and I’m pleased to report that 5 new members were approved this month, with only one resignation. We’re making progress. If you know someone who should be a member, invite them to attend as a guest of the club.

Attendance is improving but there are still 3-5 members every week that don’t sign in. Don’t forget to mark the book when you attend committee meetings or do other projects for Rotary. They count toward your attendance. We are finally achieving the 50% mark we need for club attendance.

Dues statements just went out. I hope you were able to add a little extra as a donation to the Rotary International Foundation and/or the Topeka Rotary Foundation. The Every Member Every Year campaign is designed to build the RI foundation. By adding just $25 to your dues statement each quarter, you can easily meet this goal. These funds from the Rotary Foundation have made possible the last two years of polio reconstruction project in India. This project has done (or will have completed this winter) surgeries for more than 300 children, allowing them to walk after contracting polio. Our club has been able to work in conjunction with the Mumbai India Rotary club, thanks to the connections of some of our members with other Rotarians and family members in India. Many of the projects you read about in the Rotarian magazine are made possible because of funding from the Rotary International foundation.

The board is beginning to take a good look at some other International Service opportunities. One of our members, Rehan Reza has proposed a project in his hometown in Bangladesh to assist a local hospital, founded by his family, with the purchase of an ambulance. The board voted to form a committee to work with Rehan and Larry Dimmitt, our past District Governor who is working on foundation projects this year. They will investigate further and see if the project will fit within Rotary guidelines, and if so, make a recommendation to the board for how to proceed.
Our local foundation has also been busy, and has just released a list of its funded projects. By design, these projects have to be in Shawnee County. They have a separate board of directors that manage these funds and provide oversight to the granting process.

Most people don’t realize that health care in most of the world is delivered by organizations such as Rotary, or churches or other world health organizations and is largely fueled by donations and volunteers. It makes me very proud to be a Rotarian, and to read each month about the many worthwhile projects while Rotary supports.

If you have interest in any of these projects and would like to get involved, please let me know.
Joan Wagnon

Message from the President

Good News - the Topeka Rotary Club has approved 4 new members since July.

We are well on our way to meeting our goal for this year. Thanks to those of you who sponsored them.

I hope everyone is looking around - at your co-workers, neighbors and friends for potential members. Feel free to contact them and ask if they might be interested in joining Rotary. Membership applications are at the back of the room. If the prospect is interested, invite them to a meeting as a guest of the club. Let me, or someone one the membership committee know and we will take it from there.

This month I want to write a little about attendance. Normally our club's attendance is about 50% of our membership. For many years Rotary International required that members attend 60% of the meetings, but recently that requirement has been relaxed to 50%. In our recent club bylaw revisions, that was changed to "encouraging members to attend 50 percent of the time".
I do remember when I first joined this club, it was impressed upon me that I must meet the attendance requirement. I was terrified that I would miss one too many meetings and then-President John Knoll would call me on the carpet. But he never did. And gradually I learned that there is more than one way to be an active Rotarian.

With today's busy work environment, many people find it difficult to attend every week. I personally do a lot of work-related traveling and most of the time, it is impossible to interrupt a business schedule and find a Rotary club meeting to attend. Make-up meetings at other clubs are fun if you have a more leisurly schedule but that's not the only way to keep your attendance at 50%. Attending board or committee meetings, doing volunteer service, working on a club project--all these ways count toward attendance, but often they are never reported.

At the Rotary Convention in Salt Lake I learned of an on-line. virtual club where you can sign in and post something. For some people, that is the only way they can participate in Rotary, although I'm not sure I'd find that satisfying if it were the only way to belong.
Belonging is what it is all about -- being active, involved and connected with other Rotarians. It is not about just counting the number of meetings you attend.

So, if you would like to get more involved, with a Rotary service project, or helping with the many club duties such as giving invocations, introducing speakers, etc., let us know of your interest. E-mail me and I will connect you with the correct person.

Joan Wagnon
joan101740@cox.net